| Gene Kiniski | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kiniski in 1966 | |
| Birth name | Eugene Nicholas Kiniski |
| Born | (1928-11-23)November 23, 1928 Edmonton,Alberta, Canada[1] |
| Died | April 14, 2010(2010-04-14) (aged 81) Blaine, Washington, U.S.[1] |
| Spouse(s) | Marion Kiniski |
| Children | Kelly Kiniski Nick Kiniski |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Gene Kiniski[1] Gene Kelly[1] Mighty Canadian[1] Big Thunder[2] |
| Billed height | 193 cm (6 ft 4 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 122 kg (270 lb) |
| Trained by | Dory Funk[1] Tony Morelli[1] |
| Debut | February 13, 1952 |
| Retired | February 25, 1992 |
Eugene Nicholas Kiniski (November 23, 1928 – April 14, 2010) was a Canadian athlete who playedfootball for theEdmonton Eskimos and then became a three-timeprofessional wrestling world heavyweight champion. "Canada's Greatest Athlete", as he billed himself for promotional purposes, was born inEdmonton, Alberta.[1][3] LikeBronko Nagurski before him, Kiniski was one of the first world champions in professional wrestling to have a previous background in football. He is the father of professional wrestlerKelly Kiniski andinternational amateur and professional wrestlerNick Kiniski.
One of six children to Polish immigrants of local politicianJulia Kiniski (and her husband Nicholas), Gene Kiniski grew up in Edmonton. At the age of seventeen, he was over six feet tall. Kiniski wrestled and played football atSt. Joseph's High School. In March 1947, he entered the annual Edmonton School's Boxing and Wrestling Tournament at Westglen gymnasium. Due to his size, he was the lone heavyweight competing.[4]
Kiniski captured the attention ofAnnis Stukus, a scout for theEdmonton Eskimos, of the thenWestern Interprovincial Football Union in 1949, (which later merged with theInterprovincial Rugby Football Union to form theCanadian Football League). Along with Kiniski, wrestlersAl Oeming andStu Hart were at the training camp as well. Two of his Eskimos teammates were future wrestlersWilbur Snyder andJoe Blanchard.
Kiniski secured himself a spot on the defensive line and his play earned him a scholarship to theUniversity of Arizona.[4] He was enrolled there from September 18, 1950, to January 26, 1952, and played on the defensive line for Bob Winslow. Rod Fenton recruited Kiniski into professional wrestling in Arizona in 1952.[4]
Kiniski returned to Edmonton to play football for the Eskimos, and he suffered a torn kneecap in the team's first game against Saskatchewan in August 1952. He retired from football in 1953 to resume wrestling full-time.[citation needed]
After retiring from football, Kiniski trained withDory Funk and Tony Morelli for a wrestling career, eventually making his pro debut on February 13, 1952, inTucson, Arizona, where he defeated Curly Hughes.[5] Kiniski's first exposure on television was in Southern California in 1954 alongside other wrestlers such asWilbur Snyder andBobo Brazil. One year later, he teamed up withJohn Tolos to win his first major championship, the International TV Tag Team title, inLos Angeles, then challenged NWA World ChampionLou Thesz in November 1954.[4] As an emerging talent, Kiniski got the opportunity to wrestleLou Thesz at theOlympic Auditorium on November 3, 1954. Kiniski lost in two straight falls.[4]
From there, Kiniski ventured toSan Francisco and teamed withLord James Blears to win the territory's version of the NWA World Tag Team title three times in 1955; after that, he went toTexas and, wrestling as Gene Kelly, captured theNWA Texas Heavyweight Championship in 1956.
Kiniski began wrestling in his nativeCanada for the first time in November 1956, debuting forToronto'sMaple Leaf Wrestling. His first main-event match in the territory took place atMaple Leaf Gardens in January 1957, when he teamed withBuddy Rogers againstWhipper Billy Watson andPat O'Connor and saw the beginning of a lengthy feud with Watson that spanned across Canada; the Kiniski-Watson feud gained national exposure due to their matches sometimes being seen onCBC Television. He also challenged NWA World Heavyweight titleholders Watson, Thesz andDick Hutton for the title on several occasions between 1955 and 1957.
In 1957, Kiniski competed in Montreal and Toronto. His feuds withWhipper Billy Watson,Yukon Eric,Édouard Carpentier, and Pat O'Connor pushed his career further.[4]
Gene captured the British Empire title from O'Connor on May 2, 1957, and the Montreal version of the world title from Carpentier on June 12, 1957. Kiniski headlined a wrestling card at Delormier stadium in Montreal, where he dropped the Montreal world title toKiller Kowalski on July 17, 1957, in front of 21,000 fans.[4] In 1959, Kiniski teamed withDon Leo Jonathan, "The Mormon Giant" to win the Canadian Open Tag Team Championship.
Kiniski joined theAmerican Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1960 and defeated AWA World ChampionVerne Gagne to win the title on July 11, 1961, also capturing the AWA World Tag Team title twice withHard Boiled Haggerty.[4] The title reign lasted less than a month. Kiniski won another title in West Texas a year later.
In 1962, Kiniski began what became the peak period of his career when he went toVancouver to joinNWA: All-Star Wrestling. Early on, he won the NWA British Empire Heavyweight title twice and the Pacific Coast Tag Team title three times, and he challenged again for the NWA World title, taking on Rogers in a main event atEmpire Stadium in Vancouver on July 30, 1962 (Rogers beat Kiniski to retain his title), and Thesz in 1963. He made Vancouver his home base while also making appearances in other promotions throughout North America and inJapan, particularly a lengthy stint in theWorld Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1964; while there, he challenged WWWF ChampionBruno Sammartino several times. Kiniski wrestled Sammartino on November 16, 1964, atMadison Square Garden.[4] Thinking that he had pinned Sammartino in the second fall, Kiniski took the belt and left the ring. Despite being counted out, Kiniski kept the title until a rematch on December 14 settled the matter of who was the real champion.[4]
He also went toDick the Bruiser'sIndianapolis-basedWorld Wrestling Association in December 1965 and captured its World Heavyweight title, holding it for four months. A few weeks later, Kiniski earned the opportunity to contend for theNational Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight title.
The pinnacle of Kiniski's career finally came on January 7, 1966, when he defeated Thesz to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship inSt. Louis, Missouri, in front of 11,612 fans at the Kiel Auditorium inSt. Louis.[4]
Compared to Thesz, Kiniski was a heel and was very comfortable in his role as a "bad guy" world champion.[4] As world champion, Kiniski wrestled many well-known luminaries. These includedBobo Brazil, Dick the Bruiser,Johnny Valentine,Bill Watts,Édouard Carpentier, Pat O'Connor, and the Funks, Terry and Dory, Jr., respectively.
He travelled worldwide to defend his title during his three-year reign as champion, including making frequent stops back in Vancouver to defend his title in NWA All Star, taking on challengers such as Lou Thesz,Don Leo Jonathan,Dutch Savage, Bill Dromo, Bearcat Wright, John Tolos, Chris Tolos,Abdullah the Butcher,Haystacks Calhoun, Bobby Shane,Dean Higuchi,Tex McKenzie and Paddy Barrett in the promotion.
After stops in Honolulu, Tokyo, and becoming the first World Champion to appear in Los Angeles in more than 11 years in November 1968, Kiniski was exhausted. At the 1968 NWA Convention, Kiniski announced that it was time to step down. He agreed to lose the championship toDory Funk, Jr., and eventually went down to a spinning toehold on February 11, 1969, in Tampa.[4] He later claimed for a WWE DVD that he lost accidentally, submitting early to the toehold while assuming the match was a two of three falls encounter.
The NWA World Championship loss was not the end of the line, as Kiniski continued winning championships in NWA All Star and elsewhere. He won the NWA Missouri Heavyweight title fromTerry Funk in St. Louis on March 16, 1973, while back in Vancouver, he won the Pacific Coast Heavyweight title seven times from 1970 to 1979, and won the Canadian Tag Team title ten times between 1963 and 1976, and in Japan, he captured the NWA International Heavyweight title in 1970.[4] He also got involved in the promotional side of the business when he joined forces withSandor Kovacs andPortland promoterDon Owen to acquire the Vancouver territory in the late 1960s; that, combined with Kiniski's NWA World title reign at the time, helped make Vancouver a wrestling hotbed for several years, until Kovacs sold his share in the promotion toAl Tomko in 1977. Kiniski retained his ownership stake in NWA All Star until around 1983.
Kiniski also wrestled for several months in 1970 and 1971 as a masked wrestler, "The Crimson Knight", on local TV (KPLR-TV) matches in St. Louis, Missouri. The storyline continued through numerous attempts to unmask the Knight (his mask was sewn onto his tights, making an easy removal impossible) before he was finally unmasked and revealed to be Kiniski.
Kiniski remained involved in the sport for a few more years, teaming periodically with his sons, Kelly and Nick, refereeing the main event of the inaugural NWAStarrcade (Ric Flair vs. NWA World ChampionHarley Race in a steel cage) in 1983, and later promoting events forStampede Wrestling and the AWA in Vancouver while occasionally stepping into the ring.
Then Kiniski participated in a WWF Legends Battle Royal won byLou Thesz on November 16, 1987.
His final matches as an active wrestler took place inWinnipeg'sWest Four Wrestling Alliance on February 25, 1992, defeating"Bulldog" Bob Brown, Bob Ryan and Randy Rudd in singles matches, teaming withChris Jericho andLance Storm to battle Brown,The Natural andGerry Morrow to a no-contest in a six-man match, and being the last man eliminated by Morrow in a battle royal to fill the vacantWFWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship at a WFWA TV taping in Winnipeg.[6][7]
He acted as the cornerman for Dory Funk Jr. in a match between Funk andNick Bockwinkel (with Verne Gagne) atSlamboree 1993. He was inducted into theWrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, and into theTragos/Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame inNewton, Iowa, in 2004.
In 2000, he was the interim president (commissioner) ofAll Japan Pro Wrestling'sPacific Wrestling Federation title governing body, but only while they searched for a permanent replacement forLord James Blears and to present the vacantTriple Crown Heavyweight Championship to the winner of a tournament. The winner turned out to beGenichiro Tenryu; Kiniski left thereafter, and in 2001 the permanent PWF president was announced asStan Hansen, who had competed in the tournament and lost to Tenryu in the semifinals.
Kiniski went into acting on occasion, appearing in the 1978Sylvester Stallone movieParadise Alley, as well asDouble Happiness (which also starredSandra Oh) and the made-in-Vancouver cult filmTerminal City Ricochet (with formerBig Valley regularPeter Breck), playing a bit role as a policeman. On the TV side, he appeared as one of the wrestling legends interviewed onThe Comedy Network seriesWrestling with the Past, and he served as a commercial pitchman in several TV ads aired in the Vancouver area.[8] He also made an appearance on an episode of theCBUT arts and entertainment magazine showZero Avenue in 1993, discussing art with host/interviewer Christine Lippa in a Vancouver-area art gallery.
On April 4, 2010,Jim Ross reported on his blog that Kiniski had "taken a turn for the worse and is battling to stay alive. 'Big Thunder's' cancer has spread to his brain and some speculate that is just a matter of time [before he dies]".[9] Kiniski died on April 14, 2010, aged 81, at his home inBlaine, Washington. A celebration of his life was held on April 25, 2010, at Kiniski's Reef in Point Roberts, USA, where Gene often appeared at his son Nick's tavern.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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